DEATH VALLEY DRIVER VIDEO REVIEW – ISSUE #7
Vader! Heavy Metal! Misterio! Juventud! Tony Arce! Too Cold! Jericho! Ganstas! (Gee, a North American Edition!) and other stuff I saw and heard this week!
Howdy!
Welcome to DEATH VALLEY DRIVER VIDEO REVIEW #7.
It was a wacky week of wrestling veiwing as I once again put off watching the ten hours of All Japan Women that I have on tape, for some reason, (Stupidity I suppose.)
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I watched a AAA tape from November 1994 that Tim (lover of all things Shockmaster/Typhoon based!) traded to me and it was pretty choice. Dave Fields always said that Los Destructores whipped ass and after watching the Heavy Metal/Tony Arce hair-vs-hair match, I’m coming around to his way of thinking. Arce is a classic luchadore Rudo that makes a good wrestler like Heavy Metal look great. This was a freaking bumpfest with Arce taking every opportunity to land on his head after flying over the top rope. It collapsed into a beautiful brawl into the stands, with Latin Lover and Rocco Whatshisname flying into the stands and beating the crap out of each other in one of the better “seconds take over” type brawl. I was upset that the AAA barber didn’t have an Ass Stomping coat like his EMLL counterpart sports. I watched a HeavyMetal/Super Calo/Psicosis/Konan/Cibernetico sent from St. Phil and Heavy Metal steals the show by the end, and made a good match out something involving the RW Hawk of Mexico, the wretched Cibernetico. I’m guessing that Heavy Metal will be the next highflyer to head to WCW (personal problems notwithstanding.) He’s very Super Calo-esque, in that he isn’t as flashy as Rey, Juventud or Psicosis, but is very solid in other areas and can work traditional lucha libre at higher level than their older predecessors, though maybe not transcend it like Rey, Juventud and Psicosis. I think he could make the transition with little trouble and the experience would do him good. Latin Lover would be another great choice though I have no idea how they would get him over to the Gringos.
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St. Phil sent me the Vader/Micheals match and it was pretty spectacular, if not pretty flawed. The stopping of the match twice, I’m guessing so Cornette could berate Micheals and get into the act, really sucked, and took away from the great momentum the match had reached by then. The infamous blown spot was pretty bad (Hell! I’d be pissed!) but the plancha and the tease of the Misterio toprope-to-the-floor hurricanrana into a powerbomb by Micheals made up for it. I’m glad he won by moonsault because the Super Kick is so incredibly lame, and it would have been awful to end such a good match by that method.. Vader wasn’t afraid to take a bump and worked well making his oversized opponent look credible in the fray, but it made me think of how great a Micheals/Guerrero match would be, and how interesting Vader could make a Giant/Vader match become. Maybe its time for that much vaunted dreamcard. The Undertaker/Mankind boiler Room match was pretty long and HEY! let’s face it, if you’ve seen Cactus/Funk in a barbed wire match, this family entertainment level violence just doesn’t cut it. I guess you could also say, if you saw the Cactus barbed wire period, that its a good thing he is being paid a lot more to be in fights this less strenuous. He’s done his time, I would want him to take it easy for the rest of his career.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2pcf7v
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St.Phil sent me the four way TV title match from ECW and it was pretty great. Scorpio outworked everybody and did the most spectacular move of the match with the tope into the rail and they utilized the four man concept to a pretty high degree with the building planchas. Shane Douglas supplied most of he psychology and didn’t hinder the progress of the three better workers that were in the ring with him, so I give him his props. Jericho was a lame duck so he didn’t outshine anyone, which is to his credit, because I think he could smoke Douglas and Pitbull 2 pretty bad if he really wanted to. The Scorpio drop kick of Lionsault was a new twist and it looked pretty dangerous. Scorpio right now has to be the most improved wrestler of the year. In this match, considered by some the best in ECW this year (I’d go with Sabu/Van Damme no 1), Scorpio was the driving force behind it and made it what it was, until he was knocked out of it, allowing the angles and superfluous underwear-clad valet powerbombing took over and finished it up. This makes four great matches in a row that I’ve seen Scorpio in and that has put him as the best full-time wrestler ECW has.
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Phil also sent me the Gangstas/Eliminators feud and golly was that fun! The Gangstas are very Bruise Bros.-esque in that there brawling isn’t very fascinating but those interviews are the difference and they are a freakin riot. The Eliminators are so custom made for any kind of fray that the Gangstas could be utilized to there fullest potential- much more than Ganstas/TPE stuff I’ve seen. I LOVE the interview where New Jack talks about getting good advice from his “old lady.”
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The best match on free TV this was, of course, the WCWSN main event of Juventud vs Rey Misterio Jr. There were two or three things I’d never seen these two do, including the great gourdbuster on the apron and the spinning hurricarana into the ring. It was ironic that Dusty wonders about their mat wrestling ability as Juventud hits a Murdock-class brainbuster on Rey. Juventud has definately mastered the Asai Moonsault and hit it about as beautifully as I’ve ever seen and he also hit a beautiful German Suplex. Another interesting thing about the match was that even when they blow spots, these two look cool! The missed dropkick of the Hilo Con Plancha was pretty beautiful eventhough it was botched completely. These two guys RULE THE EARTH and I think I could watch them compete against each other in synchronized swimming. I await the other two matches they have on tape. And the first top rope hurricanrana looked NASTY!
https://youtu.be/t1cjsCRSYzc
NEXT WEEK: Ten hours of AJW! I PROMISE!
NANIWA~!
Dean Rasmussen, Tanakaholic!